Central Bank Nigeria cracks the whip

UBA involvements
Oduoza says that UBA is also heavily involved in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, where the bank has been included in most of the major big-ticket transactions.  

He said the bank has continued to channel resources to agriculture, since it remains the mainstay of most economies in Africa. “UBA has a deliberate policy to continue to fund agriculture. Our lending to the sector is already above the industry average. We are doing about 7% of our total portfolio in agriculture.”

Lending to agriculture from Nigerian banks is generally on the upward trend, he says, increasing from 0.5% of total industry portfolio prior to 2009 to about 4.9% currently. “Interestingly, non-performing loans coming from agriculture lending are lower than most people would have thought.”

Oduoza says UBA is expanding its electronic banking products to improve the way it serves its more than 7m customers. The bank has rolled out an array of electronic banking products, from cards to point-of-sale terminals, which is helping to reduce the cost-to-income ratio of the bank while making a positive impact on the bottom line.

The bank maintains a liquidity ratio of approximately 60% and remains one of the Systematically Important Banks (SIBs) named by the Central Bank. It is also a net placer of funds in the interbank market.

Syndication
Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and Standard Chartered Bank, acting as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Book-runners, successfully signed a $150m Senior Unsecured Term Facility for First City Monument Bank (FCMB). This is FCMB’s largest fund-raising to date in the commercial bank syndicated loan market.

The Facility, pre-funded by Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and Standard Chartered Bank, was launched at $100m and increased following a highly successful general syndication phase. Proceeds will be used for general lending purposes with Standard Chartered Bank acting as Facility Agent.

Segun Odusanya, deputy managing director of First City Monument Bank, said the successful conclusion, oversubscription and the number of international financial institutions involved in the loan syndication indicates the level of confidence which the international banking community has in the bank and the Nigerian market as a whole. The proceeds of the fund raising will be used to support medium-term lending to key sectors of the economy such as power, upstream oil and gas, manufacturing and agribusiness.